a
singular Respect, tho' no otherways capacitated to serve him than by
good Wishes.--This Person receiv'd a more than common Injury from him,
thro' the Instigations of that female Fury; but yet continuing to
acknowledge his good Qualities, and pitying his falling into the
contrary, took no other Revenge than writing a little Satire, which his
having publish'd some admirable fine things in the praise of Friendship
and Honour, gave a handsome opportunity for." (Vol. I, p. 184.)

From the exceptional animus displayed by Eliza Haywood in describing her
colleague in the school for scandal, one may suspect that the lightning
had struck fairly near home. One is almost forced to believe that
Savage's well-wisher, the writer of the little satire, "To the Ingenious
Riverius, on his writing in the Praise of Friendship," was none other
than Eliza herself.[14] Exactly what injury she had sustained from him
and his Siren is not known, but although he still stood high in her
esteem, she was implacable against that "worse than Lais" whom in a long
and pungent description she satirized under the name of Gloatitia.

"Behold another ... in every thing as ridiculous, in some more vile--
that big-bone'd, buxom, brown Woman.... Of all the Gods there is none
she acknowledges but Phoebus, him she frequently implores for
assistance, to charm her Lovers with the Spirit of Poetry.... She
pretends, however, to have an intimate acquaintance with the Muses--
has judgment enough to know that _ease_ and _please_ make a Rhyme, and
to count ten Syllables on her Fingers.--This is the Stock with which
she sets up for a Wit, and among some ignorant Wretches passes for
such; but with People of true Understanding, nothing affords more
subject of ridicule, than that incoherent Stuff which she calls
Verses.--She bribed, with all the Favours she is capable of
conferring, a Bookseller [Curll] (famous for publishing soft things)
to print some of her Works, ["The Amours of Clio and Strephon," 1719]
on which she is not a little vain: tho' she might very well have
spared herself the trouble. Few Men, of any rank whatsoever, but have
been honour'd with the receipt of some of her Letters both in Prose
and Measure--few Coffee-Houses but have been the Repository of
them."[15]

The student of contemporary secret history does not need to refer to the
"key" to discover that the woman whose power to charm Savage was so
destructive to E